In the first study of its kind since the 1920s, rats in New York City were found to carry a flea species capable of transmitting plague pathogens. Among them: 500-plus Oriental rat fleas, notorious for their role in transmitting the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death.

A newly published study is the first to report an association between bisphenol-A (BPA), a common plasticizer used in a variety of consumer food and beverage containers, with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children.

Two of the fastest-growing plastic surgery procedures are gluteoplasty or "butt augmentation," to improve the appearance of the buttocks; and labiaplasty to address cosmetic and functional concerns with the vagina. New insights into the use and outcomes of these procedures are presented in a new article.

What do a human colon, septic tank, copper nanoparticles and zebrafish have in common? They were the key components used by researchers to study the impact copper nanoparticles, which are found in everything from paint to cosmetics, have on organisms inadvertently exposed to them.

The JRC has validated and recommended a new method which is not based on animal testing, to identify chemicals that can trigger skin allergies, estimated to affect already 20% of the population in Europe.

You might resemble or act more like your mother, but a novel research study reveals that mammals are genetically more like their dads. Specifically, the research shows that although we inherit equal amounts of genetic mutations from our parents -- the mutations that make us who we are and not some other person -- we actually 'use' more of the DNA that we inherit from our dads.

Scientists who have discovered the mechanism of a protein that suppresses inflammation in the body, say the information could potentially be used to develop new drugs to control inflammation. The study is universally applicable to all types of inflammation in patients of all ages, in conditions ranging from the common cold to serious life-threatening illnesses, authors noted.

A deficiency in the protein responsible for moving glucose across the brain's protective blood-brain barrier appears to intensify the neurodegenerative effects of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new mouse study. The research suggests that targeting the protein called GLUT1 could help prevent or slow the effects of Alzheimer's, especially among those at risk for the disease.

Researchers describe how postmortem brain slices can be 'read' to determine how a rat was trained to behave in response to specific sounds, a new article suggests. The work provides one of the first examples of how specific changes in the activity of individual neurons encode particular acts of learning and memory in the brain.

Teenagers in North Carolina were easily able to buy electronic cigarettes online because both Internet vendors and shipping companies failed to verifying ages in a study that assessed compliance with North Carolina's 2013 e-cigarette age-verification law, according to an article.